I learned most of the basics of internet research and recruiting from my first job in Cincinnati. The office I worked in focused on AIDC (automatic identification and data collection) and RFID technology sales placements, so most of the jobs I was assigned involved high technology searches for these types of people.

Back around 2004, my boss bought into a local arena-league football team. Since this was a brand new team, they needed to find players for it. My boss decided to task me with finding a quarterback for the team, someone perhaps who’d gone to a DII NCAA or NAIA school and had graduated fairly recently. This was an exciting search for me, while at the same time being a bit difficult because of the somewhat high profile status of some of the individuals I was trying to track down. Sometimes it’s hard to find actual contact information for people like this…

My boss gave me a list of schools to start searching for quarterbacks from, and I discovered that my favorite search tool for finding these men was BRB Publications, Inc. – online public records. Using public records searches, I was able to piece together the trail that the men left once they graduated from college and began their lives. One person I was looking for I discovered had started a fine jewelry store in North Carolina, and yet another had started a children’s playground equipment business in the Nebraska area.

Keep in mind that public records are just that – public records. I looked at tax and residency/mortgage records, records of marriage/divorce, court records and so forth. The information I found on these individuals was used only to reach out to them and inquire about job opportunities, and I always passed contact information along to my boss instead of placing those calls myself.

This was probably one of the most unusual searches I’ve ever been asked to do. In the comments below, share what your most unusual search has been- I’d expect there have been some pretty weird and/or elusive ones!

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For one of my clients we were asked to look for a semantic web architect (aka senior software developer). The search sounds easy enough and one would think that with a few quick strings you would have a handful of people. The only problem is that you’re looking for a senior individual to evangelize and create a piece of software that does not exist, in essence to have experience and architect something that no one has done before.

Needless to say find someone senior in an industry on the verge of inception was a challenge. We found a basement mad scientist for the job.. but it was not easy.